Mariners Pitching Staff Rolls to Another Win 4-0

Mariners pitchers continued to dominate their opponents with tonight’s 4-0 shutout over the San Diego Padres featuring the work of Michael Pineda who went seven scoreless innings to get his sixth win of the year.Pineda made this game look easy as he located his fastball well and threw his slider when needed to baffle the Padres and seems to be getting more comfortable every outing. Pineda pounds the strike zone with first pitch strikes night after night and this game was no different as he fanned 9 and gave-up only a couple of hits. As usual the bullpen did it’s job as well, with David Pauley coming in to pitch the eighth inning and he proceeded to strikeout the side. Jamie Wright came into face the Padres in the ninth inning and gave-up a couple of hits before closing this one out.

Not sure what more can be said about the Mariners rotation as it seems to be firing on all five cylinders these days. And somehow it seems in a reverse of baseball logic way, that the pitching staff is taking the pressure off the Mariners offense allowing them to relax knowing the pressure is on the other side. Maybe this is not a reality but it is one of my new theories that I have developed this season after watching this club for the last week, I will call it a “noncept” as it is not grounded in any thing you can quantify, but it feels right.

Tonight Mike Wilson got the start in left and not to be outdone by Carlos Peguero, Wilson knocked-in a pair of runs and narrowly missed hitting one out of the park in the cavernous Petco Field which is even harder on right-handed hitters than Safeco if you can believe that. Jack Wilson also got the start tonight and responded with a couple of hits himself and an RBI to go along with a run scored.

The only guy who is really struggling at the plate seems to be Chone Figgins who even resorted to pulling up his socks tonight in the old-school style that Ichiro favors. But it did not work for Figgins and he is now o for his last 10 and I would not be surprised to see manager Eric Wedge put the hot-hitting Adam Kennedy or perhaps Jack Wilson at third for on a trial basis. We shall see if Wedge resorts to any major moves offensively, as right now the Mariners offense is not under the microscope as much these days thanks to the brilliant work of the starting rotation and their shipmates in the bullpen.

The Mariners have won five of their past six games and with King Felix trotting out to the mound tomorrow I see no reason why we can’t sweep the Padres and keep this juggernaut rolling. With the exception of Cleveland in the AL Central nobody else seems to be able to win consistently in the American League, especially in the AL West where the A’s, Angles and Rangers all lost today leaving the Mariners only 1 1/2 games out of first! So at 21-24 the Mariners are right in the race, though I am not going to get excited until we get to .500 as nobody is going to the postseason in the MLB unless they play at least .500 ball, I mean let’s get real this isn’t the NFC West.

I spent the afternoon wandering around the U-District Fair listening to music and eating a variety of tasty treats and I have to say though I love the funky crowd there I don’t think there were a lot of Baseball fans out on University Ave. today. But that could all change if the Mariners somehow continue this improbable rise to the top of the AL West. Seattle is an interesting city, especially in the summer….I’d love to have a pennant race to mix in with our other wonderful summer events this year for a change….Go M’s http://jeffsmariners.com